Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The former chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party, who was convicted for his involvement with a scheme to sign up fake tea party candidates for the 2010 election, says now that Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer was the mastermind behind the plot.

“I thought I was being a loyal party soldier, doing just what the Republicans would do,” he wrote. “I deserve all the scorn I got. I’m not interested in relitigating the past, but I got six felonies, and he got another term as chair.”

McGuinness and Jason Bauer, an employee of the party, were accused of forging documents for tea party candidates, including several who said they were never contacted and had no intention of running, in an effort to siphon votes away from Republicans in the 2010 election by putting up a slate of candidates under the tea party banner.

The effort ultimately failed when the Michigan Supreme Court disqualified the mysterious start-up party's entire slate of candidates. Both McGuinness and Bauer pleaded no contest to felonies associated with the forged documents. Brewer said Friday that he was happy to repeat what he said more than two years ago when the case first surfaced.

“I had nothing to do with what happened in Oakland County,” he said, noting the timing of the blog post was suspect.

“It’s coming three weeks before my re-election,” he said.

Brewer is facing a challenge to his chairmanship from some labor leaders and some members of the congressional delegation, although another candidate for the job has not officially been announced.

Republican Party Chairman Robert Schostak said the revelation in the blog post should cause Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper to reopen the case and Brewer to resign his post immediately.

Republicans had a similar scheme of their own recently. That scandal in Grand Rapids involved Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, and former state Rep. Roy Schmidt planning to have Schmidt switch from the Democratic to Republican Party at the last minute and recruit a fake Democratic candidate to run against him.

That's not the same thing, Schostak said.

“It’s apples and oranges,” he said, noting criminal charges were never filed against either Bolger or Schmidt.

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper said she can’t, under the law, reconvene a grand jury whose time has already expired.

And Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe, whose department investigated the case, said, “We explored all leads and potential suspects. If McGuinness has information that he didn’t share before, he should have contacted us. If he has information that somebody else was involved with the crime, we’d want to interview him.

“We didn’t have any evidence to seek other charges. The results speak for themselves,” he added.